The 8 Things You Need To Know For April 29, 2019

So many things happening this week! First, the pads are on and spring football is in FULL swing throughout the state. Breakdowns and brain teasers coming soon! Second, the FHSAA Board of Directors are meeting in Gainesville today and with that, a slew of proposed changes encompassing the high school sporting landscape, of which we will have an update for you throughout the week! All of that and more, but let’s put the bow on the 2019 NFL Draft shall we?

Risk-Reward Personified: Every year since underclassmen have been permitted to declare for the draft, a sizeable chunk of players go without finding a place of work. The risk-reward of foregoing a years or even years of collegiate eligibility is high to say the least. It’s not for us a collective to decide what’s right and what’s wrong in terms of the “why” a young man needs to declare, however. It’s the “walk a mile in another man’s shoes” principle, right? Regardless of how curious or insane the decision may be to us, it’s a choice only a *small* portion even get to make, and one that is privilege in and of itself regardless of the outcome. With that said, here are the 49 underclassmen of the 144 that declared who could not find a spot, and must now take the hardest road imaginable to make it to the mountain top.

2. How Does This Year Compare To Others?: Speaking of the underclassmen topic that we just mentioned, this is where the 2019 percentage of undrafted players stacks against years past. While the obvious message is STAY IN SCHOOL, we only need to back up to the first offering today and remind ourselves this isn’t an easy decision, and one that doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It would be awesome to have them play their entire eligibility and have everything work out, but that’s just not the reality.

144 underclassmen declared early for the 2019 NFL Draft — a new record

3. WHO RUN IT?: “Say. My. Name.” – Walter White. When you speak our names in public, just remember to say it nice and loud for the people in the back. Save your “per capita” arguments Louisiana, Georgia, and New Jersey. Save your arguments anonymous coaching accounts from Texas. Save it all. Bring that same energy next year when the same thing happens all over again.

4. The Ripple Effect: Here’s a fun game that you probably can’t play yourself unless you’ve got exorbitant amounts of time on your hands, or, it’s like, your job and stuff. Ever play the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?” Try the “Infinite Possibilities of Pick Flipping” on for size. A THREAD:

5. This is Good, right?: From one of the best follows on Twitter comes a three awesome statistical breakdowns featuring some quirks at the same time. The first one is if the SEC West was a conference alone, and how they would’ve stacked up against the rest:

7. This is Good, Part 3: The final stat delivered by Sport Source Analytics that caught our attention was this one:

Year over year, here are the biggest jumps in Conference performance in the #NFLDraft:#SEC +11 more players drafted in 2018 than in 2017#ACC -17 less players drafted#B1G +7 more players drafted#AAC -7 less players drafted